You found me
by Shadows of Sorrowful Smiles
Summary: Erza, Lucy, and Levy go on a mission of their own, but something terrible happens. They're being held at a hidden cave somewhere in the forest of Shindale, and Jellal, Gajeel, and Natsu have very little time to save them before they are lost forever.


**In case you haven't realized yet, I tend to write rather depressing stories sometimes…. And my sister happens to be rather convinced that I'm depressed and that's why I write these things. Psh, what's she talking about? Anyhow, I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters, I just own the terrifying journey I put them through in this story. Enjoy~~~~~~~~~**

Levy, Lucy, and Erza were gathered around the mission board in the guild, searching through the requests. Since Natsu was sick, and Gajeel, Jet, Droy, and Jellal (**Jellal is going to be part of Fairy Tail as himself in this fanfiction**) were all out on a mission of their own. Erza leaned forward, picking out a paper and reading it out loud to the girls.

"Three mages needed to sample strawberry cakes for Strawberry Land. Needed for a week of sampling, pay is 100,000 J. Can we please do this mission?" the crimson haired mage asked eagerly, her eyes sparkling. "A week of free strawberry cakes… I might just die!"

"I don't see why not," Lucy agreed, reading the paper to herself to look for any other information they should know. "But isn't it kinda suspicious that they could have a week's worth of sampling? And the pay's so good! I mean, and why do they need mages? Couldn't regular people suffice?"

"Maybe," Levy shrugged, tossing her bright blue bangs out of her face to peer at the board. "I think we should do this mission after that one; it's in the same town and it's only a one day mission!" the girls leaned over to read the newer paper.

"Lost pet dog. Suspected to be in Shindale forest, mages wanted to safely find and bring the do back. WARNING: highly dangerous magical creatures are living in the forest.

Reward:1,000,000 J.

"Wow…. That's really well paying… do you think we should do this? Shouldn't we get more people to come with us? Like…wait for Gajeel and Jellal maybe?" Lucy asked.

"We're strong!" Erza and Levy declared, raising their fists in the air. They skipped over to where Mira was standing, wiping a counter, and showed her the two mission requests. "We'd like to go on these two missions please!" they said as one. Lucy sauntered up beside them, smiling at the white haired mage.

"Of course," she grinned, giving the papers stamps. "I'll see you in a week!"

The girls went their separate ways to pack, and decided to meet up in an hour at Lucy's apartment. Levy and Lucy sweat-dropped to find that Erza had packed twenty-seven suitcases, twenty-four of which stayed in the apartment. They had to sneak past an unconscious Natsu who clung to Lucy in his sleep, and bribe Happy to keep quiet to the dragonslayers of their missions with ten pounds of fish.

"My rent money…" Lucy sobbed as they carried their bags to the train station. "All spent on bribery for that stupid cat!"

"Now, now, Lu-chan, we don't want the boys to come after us and ruin the mission like they always do, do we?" Levy comforted her blonde friend with a wink. "And with the money we'll earn, you'll have loads of rent money!"

"And loads of strawberry cake to eat!" Erza drooled. They boarded the train, holding the mission requests.

"I'm just worried a bit about what will happen when Natsu finds out I left for a mission without him…we always go on missions together," Lucy fretted, pulling softly at her blonde hair. Levy shuddered beside her.

"Gajeel always goes on missions with me too, but since he and Jellal went on one by themselves, I suppose that allows me to go on this."

"Stop worrying about the boys and start thinking about the missions," Erza scolded the two of them. "The second one we have to take, we should prepare some strategies to help us out in case we encounter anything dangerous."

"Right!" Lucy said.

And thus, the three girls planned battle strategies, completely oblivious to the battle raging on at the guild.

"WHERE'S LUCY!?" Natsu roared, grabbing his pink hair in frustration. "I CAN'T FIND HER ANYHWHERE! SHE'S NOT IN HER HOUSE!" Mira gave the panting dragon-slayer an amused look before turning back to the counter she was _still_ cleaning.

"She went on a mission," she purred.

"Wha….. without me?" he whined. Happy flew around his head, waving his tiny arms frantically.

"No she didn't! she just… is having sleepover party at Erza's house with Levy and Gajeel!"

"With the metal head?" Natsu muttered, rubbing his head, looking confused. "Why would she do that? And why wouldn't she tell me?"

"Because you are sick and she doesn't want to bother you!" the blue exceed rushed.

"Well then I should go visit them so she can see I'm not sick! And then we can go back and sleep in her soft bed! Yay!" he cheered. Happy sweat-dropped.

"Oi, where's the shrimp?" Gajeel growled, coming in through the guild doors with a scowl. "I can't find her scent anywhere."

"Levy? But I thought you were with her and Lucy and the scary mean lady at the scary mean lady's house?" Natsu asked him, looking absolutely bewildered.

"Who told you that? Why would I be with Bunny girl? And in the scary mean—oh, you mean Erza? No. and where's Shrimp?" Gajeel repeated. Jellal strolled through the guild doors then, with Jet and Droy right behind him.

"I've got a present for Erza!" he called, looking around for the red head. "Where is she? And what's this I hear about Lucy and Levy being at a party at her house?"

In a second, two dragon-slayers and a blue-haired former council member were giving interestingly frightening looks to a very frightened looking blue exceed.

"I can't say!" he wailed before they could say anything. "Lucy gave me fish so I can't say anything! I promised!"

"She gave you fish, huh?" Gajeel murmured, looking thoughtful. He stepped over to Mira, and came back with twenty pounds of fish. "Well, here's some more. Can you tell us now?"

Happy's eyes watered, and he wiped drool away from his mouth. He shook his head slowly, looking at the fish with an intense gaze.

"OK, how about now?" now, the iron dragon-slayer had thirty pounds. Happy's eyes bulged. "Fifty pounds?"

"OK DEAL!" Happy shrieked, leaping forward and clawing the fish into his mouth. All fifty pounds were gone in less than a minute.

"Wow," commented Jellal. "He really does like fish."

"You're telling me," Natsu hmphed.

"They went on a mission, two actually," the exceed gushed. "Way out there in… the town of Shindale!"

"Shindale!?" the dragon-slayers gasped, clutching their bellies.

"But that's like a nine hour train ride!" Natsu protested.

"How are we supposed to survive nine _hours_ of riding a train!? Nine hours of transportation- urgh!" Gajeel moaned. "No, no, no…"

"Why are you two so upset?" Jellal chuckled. "It's not the end of the world just because the girls wanted to go on a mission without you two. They have Erza with them, it's not like they can get hurt. How long will they be gone for, Happy?" he added, turning to the cat.

He twiddled his paws, looking down nervously.

"_**Happy. How long will the girls be gone for?**_" the three guys asked in a dangerous tone.

"A- a week! Or more!" he broke down, hugging his belly.

"A week…." The guys collapsed, one by one.

~**Time skip~**

"SOLID SCRIPT: SHIELD!" Levy screamed, rapidly writing a shield around the dog, who was fainted on the forest floor. She wrote out several balls of flame and lobbed them at the giant monster that was attacking them. Erza was in her "world's end" armor (**and I don't know the names of any of her armors, or even if they have names, so I made up my own here**) slicing away at the monster's head. Lucy had called out Loke and Taurus, and they were attacking its body. None of their attacks seemed to be working and Taurus was called back after having been smashed under the monster's body.

"WHY IS NOTHING WORKING!?" Lucy cried out. Virgo and Aries were summoned next; the maid sprit instantly dug a hole, collapsing under the monster's weight and trapping it.

"Solid script: sword!" Levy stabbed the monster between the eyes, rearing back as it roared in pain. Its tail whipped around, striking Lucy in the face and knocking her over.

"Lucy!" Loke yelped, racing over to check on his master. Erza plunged several blades into the monster's head, jumping over to help out the spirit. Aries and Virgo disappeared back into the spirit world.

"She's unconscious, but I don't think there's any damage that can't be handled," Erza established, turning back to the dying monster. "What _was_ that thing?"

"I have never seen something like that before," Loki admitted, scratching his head. He looked worriedly at Lucy before smiling weakly at Erza and Levy. "I'll be taking my leave now, you two watch over her and make sure she doesn't get hurt ok?" they nodded and the spirit faded away.

Levy erased her shield and checked the dog, relieved to find that it was uninjured. "We can go collect the reward money and go home now!" she cheered, pumping her fist in the air.

"Yeah, but we should get Lucy to a doctor or a healing mage first," Erza commented, pointing out a dark bruise on the celestial mage's head. "We can't go a whole nine hours without getting this looked at."

"Well we can take a look for you, and it will even be for free," a creepy voice hissed. The girls jumped up to find themselves surrounded by about twenty-nine mages. Ordinarily they should've been able to fight all them off without breaking a sweat but the monster had drained away all of their oiwer, and they had next to chance of winning a battle against these mages.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind looking at other things then just her head, pretty girl like her has some nice…melons, eh?" another mage added. Erza curled her lip in disgust, twisting her body to protect Lucy from the eyes of the men.

"Aw, don't worry, you can get special treatment too, little red head," the first man raised his hands, and the twenty eight other mages swarmed the three girls.

Time skip again! By a month this time!

Natsu stared depressed at his orange juice. The mission that his Luce was on, the one that they were supposed to be gone for only a week? Well, it had been a week _and a month_! That was far too long to be without Lucy! He could handle like, an hour! And here he was, stuck at the guild because he wasn't allowed to go join Lucy on her mission, and he didn't want to leave on a mission of his own in case Lucy came back and he wasn't there.

Sitting across from him were Jellal and Gajeel, each as depressed as he was. Being as dense as he was, Natsu for the life of him couldn't figure out why.

It couldn't be that they missed Lucy, _his Lucy_, so much as to be down in the dumps because she wasn't here?

He was so frustrated that he took a huge gulp of orange juice, before spitting it out all over Gray. Nope, he was definitely never drinking orange juice again. Why was he even drinking it in the first place? Oh yeah, because Luce always loved it and if he drank it, it might bring her back home, back to him. So he finished the glass in one more gulp, taking extra care not to spit it up again.

"What the heck was that for, Flame Brain!?" Gray yelled, wiping the citrus juice off his face and bare chest. Oh yeah, he wasn't wearing a shirt. Or pants. Whoops, look away!

Natsu didn't bother to respond, only remembering how Lucy would sometimes step in whenever him and Gray got in a fight. Now that she was gone, what was the point of fighting? He slumped down into himself, pulling the scarf up so it covered his face. He missed Lucy so bad it was hurting. Next time he saw her, he would give her the biggest hug ever! And he would tell her how much he'd missed her, and how much he loved her, and then she'd never leave again!

Wait.

What?

Tell her how much he _loved_ her? He loved Lucy? Where did that thought come from? But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. And then he realized something else.

He didn't just love Lucy.

He was in love with her.

He was in love with her.

Natsu Dragneel was in love with Lucy Heartfilia.

"I'm in love with her!" he yelled suddenly, standing up straight and spilling his cup of orange juice. Jellal and Gajeel looked up at him with lonely faces. Gray stepped back, waving his hands.

"With who?" he questioned, stealing a glance at a certain water mage.

"With Lucy," Natsu acknowledged proudly. There was a collective round of applause from the mages around him.

"Being in love is man," Elfman told him, patting him on the back.

"Yay! Love-rival won't love Juvia's Gray-sama anymore!" well. I wonder who _that_ was.

"*squeal* I always knew you two would make a great couple!" Mira cried in relief from her corner.

"Lucy-san gets to be my big sister!" Wendy cheered.

"More fish for Happy!" the blue exceed danced. And they all celebrated Natsu's realization of feelings, all except for Jellal and Gajeel who were thinking about their own girls.

_I can't believe I miss the shrimp this much_.(**you all better know who this is. If you don't…. exit out of this fanfiction and reread Fairy Tail. Shame on you. Seriously.)**

_I really wish I had gone with Erza on her mission instead of going on that one with the guys. Then I wouldn't be so __**lonely**__ right now._

_ I wonder when Lucy will be back. I want to sleep with her again._

_ WHAT!? NATSU WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!? AND WHY CAN WE HEAR YOU?_

"Oh no!" silence fell across the guild immediately, because the three dragon-slayers could pick up the distress in Mira's voice, and the other guild member could tell something was wrong by the expressions on their faces.

"What is it, Mira-san?" Wendy asked, looking up at the white haired beauty in despair. Mirajane patted the teen on her head before tossing a pleading look at the three depressed guys. They understood-well, Gajeel and Jellal did, Natsu just went with the flow- and followed her up to the Master's room.

"I know you might take this difficultly, but you have to stay calm for the sake of the other mages here, ok? The take-over mage begged.

Natsu, Jellal, and Gajeel all nodded their agreement.

"The girls have been found. It appears they've been kidnapped, but Levy sent us a message lacryma and now we have pinpointed their location. I hate to tell you this, but from what we can see…well take a look for yourselves."

Mira pulled out a lacryma and tapped it, sending out a screen. On the screen, they could see the faces of Levy, Lucy, and Erza. All severely beaten, with cuts and bruised and dried blood stains. Erza was holding a limp Lucy next to Levy, who was gazing at the lacryma with broken eyes.

"P-p-please help u-us," she choked, starting to sob. "We have no magical power and I think… I think Lu-chan is dying!"

Natsu froze, his onyx eyes locked onto the body of his best friend and partner.

"We can't last much longer in here… please…." Levy fainted just then, her eyes rolling back into her head and her body just collapsing to the floor. Gajeel let out a strangled sob as she crumpled, watching as Erza limped over to stand at the lacryma.

"I don't know who's watching this, or if anybody is watching this, but if we don't get freed in a day or so my partners are going to-!"

"Freeze! What's that!? A lacryma!? You are going to really get it this time!" the guys watched in horror as a man flew into the cage where the girls were, descending on Erza with a sadistic glare. The redhead's eyes flashed with pure terror and she closed the lacryma, sending it away, but they all heard the terrible scream that vibrated through the air before the lacryma shut off completely.

There was a silence, and then;

"ERZA/LEVY/LUCY!" they each screamed the name of their lost friend, exploding out of the Master's room and speeding towards the town of Shindale.

Lucy slowly opened her eyes, finding a motionless Erza laying in front of her, with arms spread wide out as if she were trying to swim. She hastily glanced around until she spotted the blue haired bookworm draped across a boulder, as limp as a wet leaf. She struggled to her feet, ignoring the excruciating pain in her side and stumbled over to check on Levy.

She was still breathing, that was good. A fresh set of whip marks laced her bare back though, and that wasn't. Blood dripped from her body to the floor, where a small puddle had begun to gather.

Tearing of a section of her shirt, Lucy mopped up the blood best she could, turning to look at Erza.

The redhead was panting, but she was awake. One eye was swollen shut, and she had a new bruise that covered her entire right side, probably from being kicked. She struggled to smile at the blonde.

"I… I sent the lacryma…" she rasped. Lucy nodded in acknowledgement, unable to respond.

Just two weeks before, they had sliced off her tongue, muting her. They had stopped feeding her too, and were giving Levy and Erza scraps that would leave a kitten hungry.

Although Levy and Erza were both injured terribly, Lucy was undoubtedly much worse. She had been starved for two weeks and was incredibly thin. One of her arms was broken. And she had long deep cuts where the men had sliced her with blades. On her wrists and back were the bruises and ghosts of fingers, where they had held her down while raping her. Her whole body was black and blue, abused and broken. None of them knew how much longer any of them could survive, but they all knew Lucy would be the first to die. Even now, her breathing was labored.

Erza panicked and patted the blonde's foot, asking her to sit down. Lucy nodded, collapsing into a broken heap. She hummed sadly, remembering that last day she'd been in Fairy Tail, wishing Natsu wouldn't wake up and that Happy wouldn't tell the boys of their missions. Oh, how she wished he had. She knew that Natsu would probably start looking for her immediately after she didn't come back from her week-long mission in a week.

At least, she hoped he did.

Was it too much to think that maybe Natsu loved Lucy? She knew she was in love with him; she'd known it for a year at least. Was it possible though that he felt the same?

That thought made her abused heart swell, and she never heard the footsteps coming her way, or saw the dim shadow falling over Erza's and her bodies. She never felt herself being picked up and being carried away.

All she was aware of was that her goofy best friend was right next to her, in her mind. And because of that, she smiled.

Erza watched the man carry Lucy away with a sense of blind panic. Whatever they did to her, she wouldn't be strong enough to handle it. She forced herself to her feet, wincing at the pain and took a trembling step forward. Her legs gave way and she fell; a body lying on the floor again.

There was nothing she could do anymore except pray that the lacryma had reached Fairy Tail, or at least another legal guild, and that help was on the way. Her eyes closed, and the Titania found she couldn't open them again.

_Here is where I die,_ she thought sadly. _goodbye Master. Goodbye Natsu. Goodbye Gray, and Juvia. Bye Romeo and Wendy, and Cana and Mira and Lisanna. Bye Elfman and Freed and Laxus, and Evergreen and Asuka, Biska, Alzack,Gajeel and Lucy. Farewell Levy, and Jet and Droy._ Her mind formed one last thought before she faded away. _I love you, Jellal._

Natsu could smell the harsh tang of blood, of Lucy's blood and of Levy's, and Erza's too. There was also the musky scent of man clinging to the girls' scents, that he hated. They were close to where the girls were, he could tell. All he could see was that terrible image of Lucy lying like a broken doll all limp and motionless in Erza's arms, he couldn't even tell if she was actually alive until Levy had said she was.

He suddenly caught a strong burst of Lucy's scent and followed it eagerly, only to find a sweaty man. Natsu inhaled deeply; the bitter smell of Lucy's fear and blood were thick on this man. And so was the smell of sex. He narrowed his onyx eyes, not caring at all that the man was now pointing a gun at his heart.

"You… what did you do to Lucy?" he whispered, rage contracting his throat.

"What was that?" the man snarled.

"I said, what did you do to Lucy?" there was so much hate and venom, so much loathing in his voice that the man dropped his gun and shuddered. "**WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY LUCY!?**" Natsu lunged forward, smashing the man's face in with a single fist, bringing the other around to hit him hard in the gut. Natsu let his rage overcome him, only stopping when Gajeel grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back.

"As much as I'd love to do what you're doing, we have to find the girls before they run out of time," the iron dragon-slayer pointed out.

Natsu panted, looking down at the man. Or rather, the mangled, burned, shredded, corpse that used to be the man who had been there about nine seconds before.

"Here! There's a tunnel over here!" Jellal's voice rang out, and the two dragon-slayers followed it until they found the bluenette standing next to a gaping hole in the earth.

"Their scents are down there," Gajeel confirmed, with hardened red eyes. He took off at full speed, with Natsu close behind. They came into a cavern, with one lightbulb strung up way high and several separate tunnels leading off. Right in the center of the cavern lay Levy and Erza, each in mixed puddle of red and white. Gajeel immediately rushed to Levy's side, breaking down and trying to wake her up, while Natsu forced himself not to follow Lucy's scent, instead kneeling next to Erza.

"Don't worry about me," she choked. "go get Lucy. They're about to kill her I think… If … if you hurry…" but Natsu was already gone.

He found three men holding a bloody doll and smashed them all into the ground, burning them to a crisp. He almost moved past the doll but it hummed, and his enhanced ears found the noise familiar.

"Luce…" he whimpered, cradling her broken form in his arms. Her brown eyes opened a tiny bit, and closed again.

"Lucy-san!" he whipped around, startled to find Wendy running for him. She placed her hands on the blonde's body, and a bright light passed from girl to woman. With the light, Natsu was fully able to see the extent of the damage.

Lucy was skin-and-bones, every bone was visible. She was black and blue with bruises, and she had been cut by knives dozens of times it seemed. One arm was particularly floppy, and Natsu realized it was broken, completely shattered.

"Oh Mavis," he moaned. "Do you think you can save her, Wendy?"

The sky dragon-slayer's face was contorted in a concentrated and pained grimace.

"I… I don't know if I can," she whispered in dismay, "Her injuries…they're really severe. I'm not sure if my magic is strong enough to repair her punctured lungs."

"Wait… what!?" Natsu hissed. Wendy trembled and showed the fire mage the two small holes that ran through the celestial mage's body, on both ends.

"These are stab wounds," she told him. "Whatever they stabbed her with, it went straight through, and that means straight through her lungs. The best thing I can come up with is to heal her all I can and then take her as quickly as possible to Porlyusica*."

"That's… that's okay," Natsu assured her. "Just please start healing her. I don't know what I'd do if she died."

With Jellal, Erza, Gajeel, and Levy

"Levy? Levy can you hear me?" Gajeel moaned into the petite bluenette's ear. She didn't respond except for to stir, and the iron dragon-slayer's heart twisted.

Nearby, Jellal was facing something similar with a bleeding Titania. His hands flew over Erza's motionless body, as if he could heal her himself.

"Please, don't die Erza," he cried, messy blue hair covering his eyes. "I can't live in this world if I don't have you beside me. You promised you'd never leave me, remember? Don't break your promise, please don't. You can have all the strawberry cake you want, ok? Just don't die!"

There was a rustling behind him, and Jellal turned to see a stocky man wielding a sword-looking thing, only it was long and super-thin, somewhat like a kabob stick. It was stained with blood, and Jellal guessed that it had been used to torture the girls with. That thought propelled him up and at the man, dodging the wild swings and sending in punches. He was so angry, so infuriated at the thought of this, of this _scum_ touching his precious Erza, that he had completely demolished the man in less than thirty seconds.

"Done already?" Gajeel asked, standing up from Levy. When Jellal turned around, he saw that the black haired man's red eyes were glowing with fury. "You should've let me kill him a little bit, too. Don't take all the fun for yourself."

He kicked the body, and then blasted it with shards of iron. A scuffle sounded from one of the tunnels on the other side of the cavern, and the two mages looked over to find about twenty-five or so mages marching toward them. Jellal stepped forward, ready to beat down these mages too, but Gajeel held his arm out, blocking the bluenette from passing.

"These freaks are mine," he growled in a low voice. His body flashed, and then metallic scales grew all over him. He took a deep breath, "Iron dragon's roar!" and spewed forth a huge cloud of metal, speeding toward the enemies at a fierce speed. After that, he charged them, turning his arms into iron staffs and pummeling anyone he could reach.

Same as Jellal, he finished them all in under thirty seconds, crushing the bodies under his foot in disgust.

"You're all lucky that I haven't killed you for what you did to my partner," he spat. His eyes flared.

"If it was me, I would've killed them," Jellal muttered quietly, but the dragon-slayer's enhanced ears caught the sound easily.

"Yeah, well, don't you say that it's better to torture them back instead of letting them escape by death?" he reasoned. They looked at each other before nodding simultaneously.

"And I know just the way," he former council member laughed sadistically, giving the ravaged men an evil look. "Can you imagine what Mira would want to do to someone like them? Or Master? I would just love to find out." The men fainted from sheer terror.

As Gajeel turned back to Levy, he was instantly frightened to find her missing.

"Shrimp," he rasped. "Where did you go? Levy?"

"There," Jellal swallowed, pointing at the last man.

He was holding the now conscious Levy with a rather viscous looking knife at her throat.

"Make one more step toward me," he cackled, "and she gets it! I won't hesitate; I've already raped her, killing her will be just as easy. And after I've killed you two, I think I'll have some more 'quality time' with that…darling… redhead of yours. Such a feisty girl," he sneered, pressing the knife harder against Levy.

Gajeel practically burst into flames, his eyes flashing and his body growing spikes of metal. Sharp fangs sprouted from his gums. Overall, Gajeel Redfox looked ready to annihilate anything in his path, be it dragon or man.

He looked like a true dragon-slayer.

The man holding Levy gulped in fear, pressing the knife harder.

"I will kill her!" he shouted, sounding less certain of it.

"_**Put her down,**_" Gajeel's voice practically vibrated with loathing, anger, and almost every other negative emotion that existed. "_**Put her down right now or I will flay you and feed your remains to a rat. Do it right now.**_"

The man squeaked, but made no move to pull away. Jellal stepped forward again, ready to leave Erza's side and join his guildmate in this showdown before flames erupted behind the man, swallowing him.

He shrieked and flung Levy away to throw himself to the floor of the cave and writhe. Gajeel lunged forward, catching the limp girl in his arms and holding her close. His deadly aura faded away.

Natsu appeared, giving the screaming man a look filled with contempt.

"Iron fist of the fire dragon," he spat, throwing his fist down and smashing the man into the floor. He stopped squirming and stilled. "Let's go Wendy," the fire dragon-slayer continued, stepping over the charred body easily and walking briskly out of the cave. Wendy followed him out, with Lucy floating on a bed of clouds. The tiny girl looked at Levy and Erza, and without a word they too were lifted up and placed on the bed. The clouds followed them all the way back to Magnolia, all the way back to the guild.

As soon as they reached there, Wendy ran off to get Porlyusica, leaving the men to watch over the three fallen girls.

Natsu fell to his knees and prayed to Mavis that his Luce would be okay. Gajeel still looked angry enough to demolish a whole country, but his eyes were unfocused and his gaze was locked onto the small mage.

"Why did they leave without us?" he asked quietly. Jellal looked at him slowly.

"What?" he finally responded. Gajeel turned and met his gaze.

"I said, 'Why did they leave without us'? we always go on missions together, why did they go by themselves?"

"Because we weren't there to go with them," Natsu muttered with his head down. "I was sick and you two were out on your own mission. They couldn't go with us, so they went by themselves."

They stared at one another in silence.

"If only I hadn't been sick," the pyro moaned. "I could've gone with them and none of this would've happened. We could've all been back here safe and sound, but no. Because of me, Luce is _dying!_ She is dying, all because I couldn't go with her on this stupid mission. It's all my fault."

"No, no. it's our faults, too," Jellal sighed painfully. "We went on a mission by ourselves, without asking if the girls wanted to come. It's every bit our fault as it is yours, Natsu. Don't only blame yourself."

He got no response and looked up to see the pinkette convulsing in a silent fit of tears. Jellal couldn't blame him. The poor guy had only just realized his feelings for his partner, only to find her half-dead the same day. A quick glance at Gajeel proved that the black haired man was crying too.

And it wasn't long before all three men were sobbing together, for the pain and torture that their loves' had gone through in the month+ that they had been kidnapped.

"N…" they shut up instantly. Natsu turned his head to find his blonde struggling to open her eyes. His own onyx orbs swelled with tears again. And he leaned forward to wrap his muscular(**oh so muscular! XD**) arms around her before pulling away sheepishly after remembering she was injured.

"Lu-lucy, how do you feel?" he rushed.

"N…n.." she replied. "Na…"

"I think she's trying to say your name," Gajeel told his fellow dragon-slayer. He looked at Levy then, hoping for her to maybe start muttering, "G… ga…".

"Natsu…" Lucy mumbled. Her eyelids flickered and closed, and the blonde let loose a huge sigh, seeming to deflate into herself as she let go of the air. The pyro had a determined look in his eyes as he leaned forward again.

He brushed his lips against her forehead, smiling at the slight blush he found when he pulled away. "I love you," he whispered. Chocolate eyes flashed open, and a warm smile graced the celestial mage's face.

"Love you too." Ok, now Gajeel was definitely jealous. He stared at Levy, hoping she'd get the point and open her eyes so he could confess too.

"I… I always knew you two liked each other," Erza wheezed, smirking at the two. Jellal's heart skipped, and he met her gaze. Her eyes softened and she motioned with her fingers for him to come closer.

"I… I… loveyouJellal," the redhead blushed. Jellal grinned, although on the inside, Jellal's inner Jellal danced a happy Irish jig, wearing a fuzzy pink bathrobe!

"I love you more," he chuckled.

Gajeel glared at the couples, feeling insanely jealous until a tiny hand reached out and grabbed his chin. His face was pulled down toward the cloud-bed with a mazing speed until he felt his lips crash against somebody else's. His eyes widened to find that it was Levy! Of all people- even though he somehow knew it was her and was also hoping that she'd do this, it still surprised him that she actually had- it was Levy kissing him!

"Can you guess what I'm thinking right now?" she giggled into his ear after pulling away.

"Probably exactly what I am," Gajeel smiled.

And then amazingly, every single wound on the girls healed instantly! It was the power of love! And so when the two healers of Fairy Tail came back to the "wounded", they instead found a make-out festival! Because somewhere among the chaos, Gray and Juvia had slipped in.

And they all lived happily ever after!

**Haha… yeah I know. It's 11 at night and I got lazy with the ending so… yeah. But did you like it? *has the hiccups now* and if you're *hic* wondering why I put an asterisk next to *hic* Porlyusica's name, it's because I've seen it written a ton *hic* of different ways, even in the manga so I'm just writing what I think it is. Alright… it might seem a dark… well that's because I like these evil fanfiction moments. And also, I absolutely suck at fight scenes so…. Feel free to hate on them. I won't be hurt. And maybe you can review? =3 thanks!**


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